› added 1 month ago

7

TIL that in 1927, the philosopher Wittgenstein designed a door handle which has become a prototype for curved tubular handles ever since.

Read more nybooks.com

via reddit.com

b6E17 TIL about the village of Chicken, Alaska. In 1902, When the settlement grew large enough to be named, there were many ptarmigan living in the area so this was suggested as the name. However, the spelling could not be agreed on, so they named it "Chicken" instead.
jNvZE TIL the Harry Potter books sold roughly the same as the movies at $7.7 billion USD
0vy5 TIL: Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin almost died on the moon due to a faulty switch. As a result, they were unable to blast off into lunar orbit so Buzz Alrdin had to fix the issue by jamming a pen into the broken switch
kr97 TIL The US overthrew a democratic government in Guatemala, in favor of the dictator Jorqe Ubico, because the United Fruit Company was an American owned company and they didn’t want to pay for the taxes or the import duties on bananas.
rv9M TIL Ostriches have terrible ground fighting skills. If you can manage to get behind one, cinch your arm around its neck tightly and use your momentum to fall to one side. While on the ground and keeping hold of the neck, make sure to chop the throat repeatedly until the bird loses consciousness.